Why It Matters: The Saturn V was used in the Apollo programs in the 1960s and 1970s, weighed 6.2 million pounds, and generated 34.5 million newtons (7.6 million pounds) of thrust at launch.

The upcoming launch of Starship represents a crucial step in SpaceX’s ambitious plans. With its towering height of 403 feet (123 meters), Starship is designed to be the most powerful rocket ever built ...

Before either SLS or Starship, the most powerful rocket ever used was the mighty Saturn V, which took astronauts to the moon as part of NASA's Apollo program. First launched in 1967, Saturn V ...

The Starship is 395 feet tall (120 meters) and produces a colossal 17 million pounds of thrust at launch — that’s more than double that generated by the Saturn V rocket that launched the ...

"With a few planned upgrades, Starship will have three times the thrust [at liftoff] of Saturn V at 10,000 metric tons of thrust, plus the added benefit of full reusability," SpaceX manufacturing ...

Moreover, Starship's 33 Raptor engines punch out over 16 million pounds of thrust, or twice that of the Saturn V. It even towers over NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), which stands at 371 ft (114 ...

More than twice as powerful as the Apollo program's Saturn V—and designed to be reusable to boot—Starship is already a marvel of human planning and perseverance.

But first, SpaceX needs to get Starship into space. That's the goal for Saturday with the second test flight of the full-scale Super Heavy rocket and the Starship upper stage.